Boy Turned Spider Man

The Same....But Different

Peter POV

I was slowly waking up, expecting to feel my body to be stiff and weak from doing nothing but laying down. Although...I felt the opposite, I felt nimble and light strangely enough. I felt strong, and I had no idea why. I sat up and put my glasses on by habit, getting out of bed. Only realizing after a minute that something was different....everything was blurrier for some reason. For a second, I thought my glasses were either dirty or smudged or something. I took them off to try and clean them off, only to see...everything. Everything was clear, crystal clear like I didn't even need these glasses in the first place. I held my glasses in front of my face, everything went blurry. Lowered them down, everything was clear. My eyes had healed for some reason.

It was then that something else had happened. I tried to put my glasses down onto the table...but they wouldn't let go. My glasses were clinging to my hand, as I tried to put them down again. Nothing, the glasses were still held to my hand. I opened my hand in a brief moment of anger, initially worried that I just broke my glasses by dropping them. Nope, my glasses were clinging to my hand like they were attached with Velcro. In a brief moment of anger, I smacked my hand down onto the table. Expecting the glasses to break off of my hand, but not expecting to also cave the whole table in half. I felt the glasses detach from my hand but they were also in...well, pieces.

I went down to see my family, my uncle Ben and Aunt May were watching TV together. Talking to each other about a news story they saw about Homelander, uncle Ben wondering how truly responsible someone like Homelander could be with how powerful he is. May arguing that the other members of the Seven are able to keep Homelander in check. My mom was making breakfast in the kitchen, and I went up and hugged her first.

"Peter! You're all better!" She said as she gave me a hug, happy that I was healthy again.

"Yeah! My eyes are healthy too!" I said to her with a smile, showing her that I didn't need my glasses anymore. I could tell she was surprised, but she was mainly overjoyed with my health.

"That's wonderful! You're even healthier than before!" She said giving me plenty of kisses on my face.

"Mary! You might want to see this!" Uncle Ben had called from the living room. My mom carried me to the living room and we watched the news. Aunt May turning the volume up as the superhero, Lamplighter was speaking. The headline on the screen was clear as day

Scientist Dead In Sudden Car Crash. Foul Play Suspected

The headline practically made us all go silent. There was this...tension in the air, an unspoken and unseen rule that made us go quiet. I....I understood what it meant, even though I was so young I still understood what it meant.

"We're still trying to assess the damages. Uh.... it's bad...we only know the first confirmed death was one Richard Parker. We'll keep the public updated as we find survivors...if we find any," the Pyrokinetic hero said as the news anchors moved on to a different story...or the weather...I don't fully remember. We were in a haze of dispair now. Any joy my mom had for my health was gone in an instant. Aunt May was consoling Uncle Ben, who had tears streaming down his face. I....well I was just blank in the face. My father was suddenly gone...never coming home...after everything he had given up of himself to let us live comfortably.

"Dad.....dad's gone....?" I asked sadly still trying to wrap my head around the news story. Mom put me down to go grieve in what was now solely her room. I went up and hugged uncle Ben, tears unknowingly streaming down my face too. The sadness had hit me, without my fully processing of the event itself.

"Yeah kiddo....R.... Richard's gone...I....I know it must be tough...but we have to be strong for him...we need to be responsible for him...we need to be b....brave...for him..." Uncle Ben said, breaking down in tears and cries. May and I were hugging uncle Ben tight, crying as well. We spent the rest of the day on that sofa, comforting each other. Even the hours into the night watching old movies that uncle Ben really liked to watch with Dad when they were younger. It was still tough...coping with that fact, but the movies....they were out last connections to him.

"You know...your dad always questioned why they let that man into the courthouse with that knife...but I always told him...those bailiffs have to deal with too much. Especially during that time to worry about what the jurors have on their persons. We were all also more trusting of each other back then," Uncle Ben said, as we watched the 1997 release of 12 Angry Men.

"It wasn't responsible..." I said shyly.

"Maybe not in the moment. That knife though was what saved that boy's life. So even though it wasn't responsible to do, it gave him the power to convince the other jurors to be responsible and use logic and evidence instead of biases and emotions," Ben said with a chuckle.

"I don't get it..." I said sadly. May looked at me with a smile and rubbed his head.

"I don't think you need to get it right away. It's a movie, Peter. We can just watch it again if you don't get it," She comforted. Uncle Ben though had a different train of thought.

"Think about it like this. As a juror, the men in that room have the power to either save a boy's life or ruin it. The rest of them all wanted to get the choice done and over with and move on. One of them though, one of them recognized the power given to them in that room. One of them felt that they needed to be responsible with the power that was just given to them," Ben explained.

"So...he did what he did to be responsible with his juror powers?" I asked Uncle Ben.

"In a sense. He recognized that he had a life in the balance. And did whatever it took to maintain that fact to make sure the verdict was fair. Great Power requires a Great Responsibility to use that power effectively," Uncle Ben reasoned out to me. I smiled and laid back, falling asleep on the sofa. Still saddened but... feeling slightly better about the future. Deciding to ultimately keep the other physical anomalies about me a secret. My family was already going through enough, they didn't need this.